Energy and Natural Resources

Wherever significant energy is produced in the United States and around the world, Baker Botts lawyers are plugged in, helping clients close high-profile transactions, litigate high-stakes cases and provide counsel on intricate regulatory matters.

For more than a century, our Energy and Natural Resources Practice Group has represented a wide variety of clients in the energy industry, from nearly all of the dominant domestic and international oil and gas operators, service companies and pipelines to numerous regional and independent producers, processors, transporters, distributors and marketers.

Baker Botts energy lawyers have significant experience working with clients in the upstream, midstream and downstream markets for virtually all forms of energy, including:

Our group's size, sophistication and experience have earned us our “[r]eputation as an energy powerhouse,” according to Chambers USA's 2014 edition. Our reach is global: we have advised on matters in more than 120 countries and energy hubs such as Africa, China, Europe, Russia, the Middle East and South America.

In the United States, we handle substantial engagements in established and emerging major shale plays, including Eagle Ford, Bakken, Permian, Utica, Barnett and Marcellus. Our lawyers also routinely handle deals and disputes related to offshore oil and gas drilling and development.

The Energy Practice at Baker Botts serves clients in three main areas:

Transactions:

Our team regularly handles public and private deals across the energy value chain, structuring and documenting complex joint ventures, investments and financings, and acquisitions and divestitures.

We have particular strength in litigating oil and gas matters across the country, including many of the most important and groundbreaking cases arising from issues involving gas flaring, railcar accidents, title disputes, nuisance claims and local fracing bans. Our dedicated team of trial lawyers also has significant experience with claims for damages to natural resources under CERCLA.

We routinely appear before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the U.S. Department of the Interior and various state agencies and commissions across the United States, as well as before federal and state appeals courts, to challenge agency actions and rulings on behalf of our clients. Our lawyers have also handled numerous oil and gas pipeline rate matters before FERC and state utilities commissions, along with representing clients before the Interior Department in royalty cases arising from federal oil and gas leases.